Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Arxan Technologies, Avalara, BizEquity, blooom, eMoney Advisor, Kontomatik, LOYAL3, Misys, MX, Roostify, Tradeshift, Tradier

On Finovate.com

  • “Mortgagetech on the Move as Roostify Closes Series A Round Led by USAA”
  • “Blooom Announces $4 Million Series A Round Led by QED Investors”

Around the web

  • BizEquity announces strategic partnership with eMoney Advisor.
  • Vietnam Public Joint Stock Commercial Bank (PVcomBank) deploys digital banking platform from Misys.
  • Let’s Talk Payments interviews Konstantin Rabin, Kontomatik CMO.
  • BAI Retail Delivery conference attendees select MX as the Innovation Showcase Award winner.
  • Global AutoTrading integrates with Tradier to extend brokerage services.
  • Avalara announces sales-tax accuracy guarantee.
  • LOYAL3 Securities will act as co-manager for Square’s IPO.
  • Customers of the Microsoft Dynamics NAV rollout will automatically have free access to Tradeshift’s e-invoicing solution.
  • Arxan now secures applications running on 500+ million devices.

This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

 

 

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Hoyos Labs Unveils 4F Smartphone Authentication Technology

Hoyos Labs Unveils 4F Smartphone Authentication Technology
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Hoyos Labs

HoyosLabs_homepage_Oct2015

When it comes to biometric touch-based authentication, Hoyos Labs believes four points are better than one.

The authentication infrastructure specialist unveiled its 4F biometric technology at the Biometrics 2015 show in London this week. The smartphone technology simultaneously captures four fingerprints and works in any environment, leveraging the mobile device’s photo flash as a light source. Company founder and CEO, Hector Hoyos says the technology is “touch-less, four-finger acquisition with 150 degrees of freedom.”

HoyosLabs_stage_FF2014

Hoyos Labs CEO Hector Hoyos demonstratied the mobile app of the Hoyos ID Identity Assertion platform at FinovateFall 2014 in New York.

Using facial, voice, and fingerprint technologies such as 4F, Hoyos specializes in mobile biometric authentication solutions, seeking to move digital asset security beyond the world of passcodes, PINs, and tokens. The company’s open protocol standard was approved by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in September, certifying the technology as an internet and mobile device-authentication global standard. Hoyos Labs joined the FIDO Alliance in March 2015.

Hoyos Labs was founded in December 2013 and is headquartered in New York City, with offices in Boston, San Juan (Puerto Rico), Bucharest, Beijing, and Oxford (U.K.). The company demoed its technology at FinovateFall 2014.

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Kabbage’s Fresh $135 Million to Help Grow Karrot Consumer Lending Platform

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Funding, Fundings, Kabbage

KabbageHomepage

Alternative-financing provider Kabbage pulled in $135 million in new funding today. We speculated about this round in July, when rumors first circulated.

It is the company’s largest round of equity financing, and brings the company’s total raised to just over $600 million. Perhaps more notably, some sources report that Kabbage is now valued at $1 billion (this has not been confirmed by Kabbage), making it a fintech unicorn.

Reverence Capital Partners led the round, and several global banks also participated, including ING Group, Santander InnoVentures, and Scotiabank.

With this list of globally diverse bank investors, Kabbage plans to use the funds to fuel international expansion. It also aims to grow Karrot, its consumer-lending platform, from 10% of its business to 30% by next year. Watch the video of Kabbage’s debut of Karrot at FinovateFall 2014:

Kabbage also announced it has expanded its credit facility to $900 million. According to the company, the list of investors includes a mix of banks and financial groups, but does not include any of the contributors to the equity round.

CEO Rob Frohwein states that the company is on track to generate $100 million in revenues this year.

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FinovateEurope: Save £300 through Friday

FinovateEurope: Save £300 through Friday
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: FinovateEurope 2016

FEU16CrowdIMG

Finovate alum WorldPay’s IPO on the London Stock Exchange this week serves as not only a great reminder of global fintech on the rise, but also that FinovateEurope 2016 is rapidly approaching. With the event less than 90 days away, 9-10 February, it’s time to lock-in our best ticket price and save £300. Register before Friday, 16 October.

FinovateEurope 2016 will return to Old Billingsgate Market Hall in London to showcase the newest ideas in fintech. This is our most globally diverse show: Combined with Finovate’s signature demo-only format, you are sure to experience some amazing new fintech.

More than 1,200 attended last year, and we expect even more in 2016. Want to see what you missed? Check out our Video Archives page to replay the live demos from all 72 presenting companies.

FE2016Logo

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American Banker’s “20 Fintech Companies to Watch” Features 11 Finovate Alums

American Banker’s “20 Fintech Companies to Watch” Features 11 Finovate Alums
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: AcceptEmail, Avoka, BioCatch, Feedzai, Fenergo, Gro Solutions, Intellaegis, Ripple, Trunomi

FintechForward_AmericanBanker_BAIIn the same way that celebrities examine the memoirs of other celebrities to see if and how frequently their names are mentioned, I admit my first thought upon seeing American Banker’s roster of “20 Fintech Companies to Watch” was: “How many Finovate/FinDEVr alums?!”

American Banker’s “20 Fintech Companies to Watch” feature is a part of Fintech Forward, its collaboration with BAI. The goal of the partnership is to “identify the forces and trends that are motivating banks’ technology investment.”

Companies for the list were selected by a panel of judges from American Banker, BAI, Citi, Santander, and Rockland Trust, who focused on three criteria:

  • Does a company offer innovative technology?
  • Does it solve a real business problem?
  • Is it ready for prime time?

So with the bar set, here are the Finovate alums that made the cut.

Rounding out the top 20 were Untapt, Gigaspaces Technologies, IdentityMind Global, Addepar, Zenbanx, nCino, Moneythink, InAuth, and Iovation.

In addition to its “20 Fintech Companies to Watch,” Fintech Forward has produced its “Top 100 Companies in Fintech” and “Top 25 Enterprise Companies” rankings. Both rosters feature numerous Finovate and FinDEVr alums, as well.

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Website Design: 10 Reasons to Love the Homepage of City National Bank of West Virginia

Website Design: 10 Reasons to Love the Homepage of City National Bank of West Virginia
By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Advertising & Promotion, Website Usability & Design

city_national_WV_home

Sometime serendipity leads you to great places. Looking for inspiration this morning, I did a random search on Google for “banks in West Virginia.” The top organic result was City National Bank, an 82-branch bank headquartered in Charleston, West Virginia. If they were a fintech company, we’d be talking about how close they are to becoming a unicorn (current market value is just under $750 million).

And more importantly for our blog, City National has an awesome website. The overall look and feel is great, the polished graphics grab your attention, and it’s limited it to about 60 words of copy. Here’s 10 more reasons why it clicks with us:

  1. Easy-to-find site search: Placed in the upper right with a purple magnifying glass to give it a little extra polish.
  2. Four key items limit the main navigation: Personal | Business | Mortgage | Wealth Management
  3. Functions on personal drop-down menu easily accessible (not shown) includes: “Online and Mobile Banking” and “Online Account Opening” two important functions that are often difficult to find. It also lists “Avoiding overdrafts” first (see #10)
  4. Well designed promo area: The four rotating promos are beautiful, with great visuals and dramatic color.
  5. Visible call to action: The promo includes a specific call to action: “Add your card.”
  6. New-user help within login area: I really like how they split the button into thirds with Login | Demo | Enroll
  7. Account opening choices: It’s important to showcase the ability to open online since that’s still not widely understood. But extra points go to City National for also not forgetting that many (most?) still like the support of opening in branch.
  8. $5 e-statement credit: Great to see the bank sharing the cost savings by ridding the system of paper
  9. Overdraft avoidance: The bank not only uses the O-word (on the homepage no less), but also helps customers avoid overdrafts (see also #3 above) (see note 1).
  10. Suggestion box: After #9, I’m not surprised, but it’s also rare to see this level of encouragement to provide feedback to the bank.

Grade: A

—–

Note:
1. If you go deeper into the overdraft-avoidance advice, it’s not as consumer friendly as I expected. The bank could do more to promote overdraft-protection options.

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FinDEVr APIntelligence

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: BehavioSec, Currency Cloud, Expensify, Fidor Bank, FinDEVr APIntelligence, MX, PocketSmith, WorldPay, Xero

FinDEVr2015LogoV2DateAre you building new financial technology? Be sure to check out coverage from our recent developers conference in San Francisco. We’re taking the fintech developer tool showcase to New York, 29/30 March 2016. Stay tuned for details.

Developer news

The latest from FinDEVr San Francisco 2015 presenters

  • Fidor Bank wins in two categories at BAI Retail Delivery’s Global Banking Innovation Awards.
  • WSJ features BehavioSec and Nymi in its piece, The Next Security Frontier: The Human Body.
  • PYMNTS.com takes a look at Currency Cloud and the latest update to its API, Payment Engine Two.
  • Worldpay’s IPO on London Stock Exchange is the U.K.’s largest IPO of the year, at a market cap of £4.8 billion ($7.3 billion).
  • Self Lender names MX one of three startups “absolutely crushing it” in fintech.
  • “Kabbage’s Fresh $135 Million to Help Grow Karrot Consumer Lending Platform”

Alumni updates

  • PocketSmith launches in Xero Add-On Marketplace.
  • Expensify launches new integration features for Xero.
  • Nymi recruits CEO John Haggard; Karl Martin will now serve as CTO.

Stay up to date on daily developments by following FinDEVr on Twitter.

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Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: BehavioSec, Blackhawk Network, Fidor Bank, Hoyos Labs, Idea Bank, IDology, Insuritas, Lending Club, Markit, mBank, Meniga, Moven, Nymi, Payfone, Ping Identity, PocketSmith, Stockpile, Xero

On Finovate.com

  • “American Banker’s “20 Fintech Companies to Watch” Features Eleven Finovate Alums”
  • “Kabbage’s Fresh $135 Million to Help Grow Karrot Consumer Lending Platform”
  • “Hoyos Labs Unveils 4F Smartphone Authentication Technology”

Around the web

  • IDology makes an equity investment Payfone.
  • Insuritas to install insurance agency solution for MAC FCU’s 14,000+ members.
  • PocketSmith launches in Xero Add-On Marketplace.
  • Fidor Bank wins in two categories, Lending Club and Idea Bank both come in first, at BAI Retail Delivery’s Global Banking Innovation Awards.
  • WSJ features BehavioSec and Nymi in article “The Next Security Frontier: The Human Body”
  • mBank launches biometrics in its mobile application dedicated to corporate customers.
  • PYMNTS profiles Moven in the wake of its recent $12 million fundraising.
  • Markit unveils cloud-based, Know Your Third Party (KY3P) service to make it easier to manage third-party risk-processes.
  • Blackhawk Network and Stockpile partner to make eGift cards for stock available at select retailers in the U.S.
  • Meniga receives a World Summit Award for best technological solution in e-business and commerce.
  • TechCrunch: “Ping Identity Opens Up About Its Financials As It Eyes 2017 IPO”

This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

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Marketing Minute: Optimizing Emails for the Small Screen

Marketing Minute: Optimizing Emails for the Small Screen
By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: BBVA, BBVA Compass, Capital One, Email Marketing, Email Samples, Simple

Recent email marketing research found that two-thirds of Americans regularly check email via smartphone and a significant number of total opens (as high as 70%) are now opened on a mobile device. Since most emails that look good on mobile look fine on a desktop (but NOT vice versa), you can pretty much disregard the desktop when creating a design template for your email alerts and marketing messages.

Here’s a few examples from my inbox during the past few weeks. Both Capital One and BBVA’s Simple use appropriate font size and a good mobile layout. Simple does an especially good job at grabbing attention with a small animation at the top of the message. In comparison, the BankDirect pitch is not well optimized for mobile, though it’s readable if you work at it. But it does nothing to grab your attention visually.

——–

Bank email samples (viewed on iPhone 6)

First: Business Savings account promo from Capital One
Easy to read opening line and big Open Now buttons on first screen and below the fold

Second: BankDirect to American AAdvantage mileage club members
Harder to read the small type, and call-to-action is below the fold

Third: Simple announces its 100%-no-fee policy change
Grabs attention with small animated graphic at top with big “Hi FirstName” visible on first screen. The remainder of message is in a font easily read on a mobile phone:

capitalone_email bankdirect_americanair_email simple_email2

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Moven Rounds Up $12 Million in Funding for International Expansion

Moven Rounds Up $12 Million in Funding for International Expansion
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Moven

Moven_homepage_Oct2015

Mobile banking innovator Moven has picked up $12 million in new funding. The investment round was led by Route 66 Ventures, and takes Moven’s total capital to more than $24 million. Anthemis Group, Atlas Asset Management, NY Angels, and Raptor Group’s Jim Palotta also participated in the series B round.

The new capital will help Moven expand internationally, particularly into Canada and New Zealand. Moven announced a partnership with TD Canada last December, and has been working with New Zealand’s Westpac since August 2014.

Moven_stage_FS2015

Moven CEO and founder Brett King demonstrated Moven Financial Health Platform at FinovateSpring 2015 in San Jose.

In addition to deals with TD Canada and Westpac, Moven inked a deal with Accenture in May, in which the two would “jointly develop next-generation digital banking solutions.” The agreement also called for building solutions that will help banks worldwide adopt digital technology faster, more efficiently, and less expensively.

Winner of a Best of Show award at FinovateSpring 2015 for its Financial Health Platform, Moven was founded in 2011 and is headquartered in New York City. The company launched its mobile-first bank to the public in March 2014, and has since partnered with MoneyDesktop (now MX), and taken its mobile technology to wearables via Motorola’s Moto 360 and Samsung Gear smartwatches. Moven’s CEO and founder Brett King is the host of Breaking Banks, a weekly radio program on disruption in banking.

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Emailage & Feedzai Partner to Combine Machine Learning with Email Risk Assessment

Emailage & Feedzai Partner to Combine Machine Learning with Email Risk Assessment
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Emailage, Feedzai

EmailageHomepageFeedzaiHomepage2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fraud-prevention companies Emailage and Feedzai have teamed up to create an even stronger edifice against would-be hackers.

In the agreement, both companies will leverage the other’s unique security layer to combine email risk-assessment with fraud scoring.

Emailage, which debuted at FinovateSpring 2015, offers a tool that assesses the risk associated with an email address. We covered the product, used for underwriting risk on everything from ecommerce transactions to P2P payments in our Finovate Debuts series in August.

Feedzai’s fraud-prevention solution analyzes data furnished by session clickstream, access frequency, malware signatures, social biometrics, and now email addresses. Its machine-learning software analyzes the data-sets to determine risk level. Feedzai made its European debut at FinovateEurope 2014.

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Stockpile Hauls in $15 Million in New Investment

Stockpile Hauls in $15 Million in New Investment
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Stockpile

Stockpile_homepage_Oct2015

 

Stockpile, the company that provides gift cards for stock, has raised $15 million in funding. The major investment in Stockpile comes courtesy of Sequoia Capital, Mayfield, and individual investor, Ashton Kutcher, who praised Stockpile’s “drop-dead-easy user experience and affordability to all.”

Rajeev Batra, partner at Mayfield, was equally enthusiastic, referring to Stockpile’s combination of gift card technology and fractional share ownership as a “massive paradigm shift.”

“Stockpile is bringing the stock market to where you shop, bank, and do other things in your daily life,” Batra said. “You need a seasoned team to pull this off, and these guys know how to execute.”

Stockpile_stage_FS2014

Stockpile CEO Avi Lele and CCO Dan Schatt demonstrated Stockpile Gift Cards at FinovateSpring 2014.

Added Don Kingsborough, founder and former CEO of fellow Finovate alum Blackhawk Network, “Every retailer CEO I’ve spoken with thinks Stockpile is going to be the next, multibillion-dollar gift card category.”

Setting up a Stockpile Gift Card is as easy as choosing the stock (such as Tesla), deciding on a dollar amount to spend (any whole number between $1 and $1,000), and then purchasing the gift card with a credit card. The gift recipient then logs in to their Stockpile account using a special access code in order to get their stock. Stockpile Gift Cards are available at a variety of retailers including Lowe’s, Supervalu, and Wegman’s, as well as via iOS app. Gift cards include a “gifting fee” of $2.99 per card plus 3% of the face value of the card.

“Most people have never had an opportunity to own stock in their favorite companies because it’s too expensive and complicated to get started,” Stockpile CEO and founder Avi Lele explained in a statement. “For the first time ever, you’ll be able to walk into the supermarket and buy a gift card for, say, $25 of Apple stock right off the rack.”

Founded December 2010 and headquartered in Palo Alto, California, Stockpile made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2014 in San Jose.

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